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There really isn’t a good place to post this, but I had to share this with people…

So I just learned that a user on our network was keeping a batch of work documents on her local Desktop rather than the server. And, as you can guess… she deleted them.

Her answer to this, because users know everything, was to … get ready… roll the date on her computer backwards 24 hours, convinced this would bring her files back.

When it failed, she actually argued that it would work, just give it time.

I cannot even begin to imagine the thinking that goes into that plan, but I just can’t quit laughing and I needed to give other sysadmins a laugh for at least a brief moment.

25 Spice ups
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bwahaha that would mean if i set back the date form my old box that i get a new one? Oh Lenovo, Dell, HP and all the other big vendors are going to hate your user for revealing this

4 Spice ups
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So does that mean I could set the date forward on my computer and all my current tickets would be completed for me. Assuming I was going to do them, in the future they will already be done.

11 Spice ups
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Windows 7? Did you try recovering them from the shadow copy (previous version)? Not quite what they told you about rolling back the clock, but it is sort of like rolling back the time.

Also, is this user a Mac user at home? Time machine works by “Rolling back the computer” so maybe that’s what they were thinking?

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No, she doesn’t use a Mac at all even at home. She swears, still, that come Monday morning her files will return by rolling the clock back a day.

1 Spice up
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Tell her how much it will cost for data recovery. And it still won’t guarantee… Use recuva

1 Spice up
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Talk about a plan of desperation…

Where do people get these types of ideas? What is it that goes through their minds… Unless she was thinking that rolling the date back was the same as a recovery point?

2 Spice ups
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She probably had some kind of (not entirely wrong) notion about System Restore…

Quite an interesting viewpoint mind you :slight_smile:

2 Spice ups
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Good one. :slight_smile: That said: Recycle bin? Maybe a better fix.

1 Spice up
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You don’t really think a user would keep documents on their desktop, and then delete those documents, without also immediately emptying the Recycle Bin do you? I’m not entirely sure what exists at the genetic level that makes them just have to do it… but they do.

And then you have the users with 46GB of documents in their Recycle Bin because they have never ever emptied it. Those are the users who will never accidentally deleted a document.

4 Spice ups
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Maybe you could ask Spiceworks to include that feature in the next release :smiley:

3 Spice ups
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You Know, as funny as this is, would it not be a great idea to integrate “Previous Versions”,“Time Machine”, whatever they call it, directly into the clock so it would, in fact, show you the state of your machine at that time and allow you to recover files you accidentally deleted or modified.

@maxbasso

2 Spice ups
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Recuva then let her believe the files reappeared.

It’s better punishment that way.

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Wait,…you’re saying you can’t just recover files by turning the time back?

BRB, I have to work on my backup solution…

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Hi Don - yes, I figured as much. Sometimes worth a shot though! :slight_smile:

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Haha

No guaranteed recovery… but guaranteed no data, no charge. And easy stuff isn’t very expensive. But probably trying a software tool first is a better fit. Definitely stop doing anything that would write to it. That might require you to cut short the waiting until the date changes to test her idea.

1 Spice up
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Why backup your thing when you can go back in time !

1 Spice up
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I would have explained, in a serious tone, that we did not pay for the flux-capacitor upgrade for their machine and apologize with promises of doing a better job next time.

3 Spice ups
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Yeah backups at 88mph :smiley: in a Delorean NAS or so

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so not even complete ignorance - no surprise there - but then argumentative when it didn’t work! so not only is it your fault the data is gone, it is your fault for it not being restored by following the users instructions TO THE LETTER

either way you lose. so next time you receive any requests from this user - hmmm, take your time. because nothing you can ever do will fix the fact that you didn’t restore the “missing files”